Alliance by Lacy Williams as Lacy Yager, Haley Yager

reason we Chasers have a rule called Head or Heart.
    “Shane!” Maggie might look like herself, but her shout is more growl than voice.
    Well, that answers my question of whether or not she’s still around. Doesn’t answer the one about if she wants to eat me or not.
    A grunt is the only response I have time for. I flip my knife around and hurl it at the standing vamp’s head. He goes down.
    Bat-vamp gets in another vicious blow to my torso; it feels like I’ve taken a sledgehammer to the gut.
    Suddenly, he’s forcibly lifted off me and Maggie’s there. I cringe, waiting for her to rip into my jugular, but she doesn’t. She sticks an already-bloody knife—from one of the other vamps I’ve killed—in his eye socket and he slumps to the ground, motionless.
    That’s three down, by my count. Four to go. I start to stand up, so I can get a look at where the other vamps are in relation to our position.
    “Get down,” Maggie growls.
    I army-crawl toward the gymnasium wall while shots explode around the room. A hiss from behind me lets me know Maggie’s still there and probably hit. I don’t stop until I’m behind a narrow corner where there’s an entrance to the kitchen area. It takes every iota of courage—or stupidity—I possess to reach back and drag Maggie around the cinderblock barrier with me.
    We put our backs to the wall. When she sits up and flips her tousled blonde hair out of her face, I see she is remarkably unscathed. Her green eyes are accusing. She’s shaking, obviously in pain from the half-healed blistering burn covering her right arm. Why did she turn back human? How did she turn back so quickly?
    “You hit, Blondie?” I can’t believe I’m asking about a vampire’s welfare, but she hasn’t killed me yet, so why not?
    “Yeah, but I’m fine,” Maggie answers in her normal voice.
    Oh, to have a vampire’s ability to regenerate.
    I take off my left boot and slide out the backup knife I carry inside it. I offer it to Maggie but she shakes her head.
    “Where’s your sister?”
    “Gone.”
    She looks up sharply, eyes narrowed and focused on my face. “You sure?”
    “Yeah. She called me earlier.”
    She tries to suppress a scowl but doesn’t hide it all.
    Another volley of shots unleashes and mortar from above our heads crumbles and falls on us. She peeks around the corner and holds up two fingers. Two shooters.
    “How long have you known about me?” she demands.
    “Since the first day,” I admit. I don’t like the guilt that’s burning in my gut.
    “So it was all a lie.” Her words aren’t a question and they’re spoken so softly I’m not sure she’s even talking to me.
    I don’t refute her statement. I can’t.
    “You take the one on the right,” she says, and darts out into the open.
    “Hey!” I call out, but I follow her, sprinting toward the vamp that’s only a few yards away. I dive as he pulls the trigger and manage to roll up under his feet and bring him to the ground.
    “Why didn’t you—huh!—kill me when—you had the chance?” It’s back to growly-Maggie and I can’t believe she’s talking while she’s wrestling the other vamp.
    I finally force my knife between the vamp and myself and my aim is true—he’s dead in the next second. I look up and Maggie’s vamp is still and silent too.
    I scan the room for the other two vampires, but—
    “They’re gone.”
    I look over at Maggie’s words to find her hunched over her knees, a little ball on the floor next to a dead vampire. She’s so tiny. And covered in blood, some dried, some fresh.
    I take a step toward her before I stop myself. What am I going to do, hug her? Not likely, not unless I want my head ripped off.
    From behind, I can see that the entire side of her back and shoulder have been burned by the holy water. She must be in human form if it isn’t healing, but I can’t see her eyes to verify.
    I have to bite back the urge to ask if she’s okay. “Are you sure they’re